Contents

History

Preface

A number of facts pertaining to the life of Ivan Kragoff are subject to the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. This is particularly true in regards to his country of origin, its standings with the United States, and his reasons for space travel. Primarily his first appearance which was published in the early 1960's. All references to the Cold War, the Space Race, and the USSR should be considered topical in relation to when the story was originally published. As such any topical references have been generalized in the body of this profile. While it has since been revealed that Ivan Kragoff was active during the Cold War in Soviet Russia,[1] per the Sliding Timescale, by the modern era the Cold War has been over for decades.[2]

Early life

Not much is known about the past life of Ivan Kragoff. He was a Russian scientist with a strong loyalty to the USSR during the Cold War era. He had some involvement with Department X, the agency that was responsible for creating the Winter Soldier.[1] However full details of his involvement remain unknown. Kragoff has maintained his communist ideals, even after the end of the Cold War.

Becoming the Red Ghost

Ivan Kragoff was a Russian scientist and devoted communist who studied the effects of Cosmic Rays on the human body, based on research that was conducted on the Fantastic Four a team of American adventurers who were mutated by Cosmic Rays during a space flight.[4] Kragoff not only sought to replicate the conditions that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, but to also increase these abilities. Building a ceramic ship that would expose the crew to an even more potent surge of Cosmic Rays, Ivan prepared a flight to the moon with three trained apes: Peotor the Orangutan, Miklho the gorilla, and Igor the Baboon. Passing through a Cosmic Ray belt, Ivan and his crew were mutated by the rays and upon landing on the moon he discovered that they were given fantastic powers. Peotor developed control over magnetism, Miklho gained enhanced strength, and Igor became a shape-shifter. Ivan himself gained the ability to become intangible at will and decided to name himself the Red Ghost. His flight coincided with the Fantastic Four's mission to the Blue Area of the Moon to investigate its breathable atmosphere. The Red Ghost decided to pit his Super-Apes against the Fantastic Four to prove that his country was more superior to the United States. His attack on the Fantastic Four's Thing aroused the attention of the Watcher an alien who had been charged with recording human history for centuries. Uatu allowed the Fantastic Four and Red Ghost and his Super-Apes to fight out their differences on the moon. During the course of the battle the Fantastic Four noted how Red Ghost withheld food from his apes in order to force them to do his bidding and used this to turn his apes against him. With the Red Ghost defeated, the Fantastic Four returned home to Earth, stranding the Russian scientist on the moon to fend for himself against his angry apes.[5]

Early Conflicts

After some time stranded on the moon, the Red Ghost managed to gain control over his apes once again. Developing a ship that could be powered by Peotor's magnetism, the Red Ghost lured the Fantastic Four to Yancy Street where he had his apes attack the heroes. The Red Ghost and his apes easily captured the Fantastic Four and brought the to the moon aboard his ship and then left them there to die. With limited air, the Fantastic Four managed to get to the Blue Area and seek shelter in the Watcher's citadel. Elsewhere in the universe the Watcher contacted the Fantastic Four and allowed them to use his equipment to deal with the Red Ghost. Using the Watcher's devices, Mr. Fantastic pulled the Red Ghost's ship back to the moon and another battle erupted. During the course of the battle, the Red Ghost was knocked into a dimensional gateway and as seemingly lost forever. With the Red Ghost defeated, the Super-Apes escaped in his ship. The Fantastic Four meanwhile were transported back to Earth by a thankful Watcher.[6] The Red Ghost was transported to Russia where he was apprehended by the authorities, but he managed to escape.[7] Learning how to project his powers to make others intangible as well the Red Ghost made his services available to the Mole Man, ruler of Subterranea, rescuing a number of his Moloids after a botched attack on the Avengers. When the Avengers invaded the Mole Man's domain to rescue their captured teammate Giant-Man, the Red Ghost assisted in trying to repel the invaders. The Avengers eventually destroyed the Mole Man's "Atomic Gyroscope" weapon foiling his plans. With the destruction of the Gyroscope, the Mole Man terminated his alliance with the Red Ghost.[8] Following his defeat at the hands of the Avengers, the Red Ghost started the first of many trips to the moon to try and raid the Watcher's citadel of its technology. However he and his Super-Apes crossed through a Chronospike that sent him many years into the future where he failed his goal and ended up back in his proper point in time.[9] The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes next became pawns of Dr. Doom who used his Emotion Changer device to send an army of super-villains to attack the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Girl. Kragoff attacked the Invisible Girl and the Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters, but was repelled by the Thing, Mr. Fantastic, and the Human Torch until Red Ghost and his minions were banished to a mystical dimension by Sorcerer Supreme Dr. Strange. Later on during the attack, Mr. Fantastic used the Watcher's Time Displacer device to banish all the villains back to where they came from with no memories of the attack. Presumably, the same had occurred to the Red Ghost.[10] Kragoff and the Super-Apes were later pulled forward in time by Aron the Rogue Watcher to battle the Fantastic Four and Fantastic Force. When Aron was defeated, all his pawns were returned to their proper eras with no memories of the battle. [11].

Quest for More Power

The Red Ghost gave up his Super-Apes for a time and as a prolonged after effect of passing through the Watcher's dimensional gate, the Red Ghost lost his ability to become intangible. He also began training new apes that had no super-human abilities, naming them Alpha and Beta.[13] Following his last defeat at the hands of the armored hero Iron Man, the Unicorn,[14] the villain passed out outside of the Red Ghost's hideout. The Red Ghost then convinced the Unicorn that he could cure him of his deadly affliction.[15] In exchange for the supposedly life saving injections the Unicorn agreed to steal Stark Industries latest invention the Cosmic Ray, which the Red Ghost believed could not only restore his lost powers but boost them to even greater levels. The Unicorn succeeded in recovering the Cosmic Ray, but Tony Stark pursued the Unicorn in his armored alter-ego, Iron Man. A battle then broke out in the Red Ghost's hideout located beneath an abandoned mining town. While the Unicorn and Iron Man fought, the Red Ghost used the Cosmic Ray to boost his powers gaining the ability to transform into a red mist. He also exposed Alpha and Beta to the Cosmic Ray boosting their intelligence, giving Alpha enhanced strength and Beta the ability of mind control. The Red Ghost then set his base to self-destruct and left Iron Man and the Unicorn to die while he escaped.[16]

The Red Ghost fled to South Africa where he sent his new Super-Apes to gather an army of primates to assist him in invading a SHIELD satellite tracking facility. The facility easily fell to the Red Ghost's attack and he soon began using the equipment there to build a massive Ultra Cosmic Ray Intensifier to mutate his army of apes. He was opposed by Iron Man and Unicorn who teamed up to defeat the Red Ghost. As the battle raged, Alpha and Beta suddenly turned on their master, deciding that they would no longer be enslaved by a human again and destroyed his devices. Unicorn, unaware that the Red Ghost was unable to actually cure him, then absconded with his erstwhile companion. Iron Man was unable to follow after him due to damage done to his armor during the battle.[17]

Soon the Unicorn discovered that the Red Ghost did not have the ability to cure him and abandoned him, apparently without issue. Having given up on apes he began experimenting on using cosmic rays to control the minds of porpoises and other intelligent marine life. Perfecting his craft the Red Ghost made his technology available to the Atlantean barbarian known as Attuma.[18] Needing additional research from a marine biologist named Dr. Jennings, Attuma went to the surface to capture the scientist in Atlantic City. This let a clash between the Hulk, Valkyrie, and the Sub-Mariner of the Defenders and their ally Hawkeye. All the heroes but the Hulk -- who fled the battle -- were captured and taken back to Attuma's kingdom. There the Red Ghost began experimenting his Cosmic Ray treatment on the Sub-Mariner, succeeding in making him his slave and pitting him against Hawkeye and Valkyrie when they broke free of their cells.[12] The other two heroes were tested and when they were also put under the Red Ghost's control they were used to lead an invasion of Atlantis. This invasion scheme was thwarted when the Hulk was able to led Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer to the location of their captured comrades. Combining their mystical and cosmic powers, Strange and the Surfer managed to cut off all cosmic rays from penetrating Earth's atmosphere freeing their comrades from the Red Ghost's control and rendering the Red Ghost temporarily powerless. Attuma's invasion was easily repelled, and the Red Ghost apparently escaped capture.[18] Following his failed alliance with Attuma, the Red Ghost returned to the moon to try once again to pilfer the Watcher's technology. Once again he found himself caught in the same chronal spike as before.[19] During this period the Red Ghost's powers went through a state of flux.[7] The Red Ghost eventually recovered his original Super-Apes and he soon discovered a means of making contact with Negative Zone warlords Annihilus and Blastaar. Agreeing to an alliance, the Red Ghost came up with a means of freeing his allies from the Negative Zone: by capturing the hero Captain Marvel who at the time was bonded to Rick Jones through a pair of Nega-Bands that allowed them to trade places between Earth and the Negative Zone. Tricking Captain Marvel into battling him, the Red Ghost used his intangibility powers to force Mar-Vell to strike his Nega-Bands together making him switch place with Rick. Easily subduing Rick, the Red Ghost then went about trying to duplicate the Nega-Bands so that both Annihilus and Blastaar could come to Earth. Ultimately, Captain Marvel tricked the Red Ghost to use one of his duplicate Nega-Bands to travel to the Negative Zone to help Blastaar and Annihilus battle him while Rick escaped his bonds on Earth. Mar-Vell then broke the Nega-Bands and left the Red Ghost stranded in the Negative Zone.[20]

Somehow escaping the Negative Zone, the Red Ghost allied himself with Russian scientist Nina Pushnikov, who secured a scholarship with Mr. Fantastic at the Baxter Building. The two consorted to steal Reed Richard's new Gravity Localizer device. When they invaded the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building headquarters they found that the device had already been taken, unaware that the Human Torch and Spider-Man took the device and used it to make Spider-Man's new Spider-Buggy able to drive on walls. Discovering this truth, the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes tried to steal the Spider-Buggy, but Spider-Man was able to thwart the Super-Apes by tossing a display rack of fruit pies that kept the apes occupied long enough for the authorities to arrive and apprehend them all.[21]

The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes eventually broke out of prison, but the Red Ghost's fluctuating powers caused him to be trapped in his intangible "ghost" form. Seeking Stark Industries new Cosmitronic Cannon to cure himself, he hired armored criminals to try and steal it, but they were thwarted by Iron Man. Deciding a different approach, the Red Ghost sent his Super-Apes to kidnap Stark himself during a charity function he was throwing at his residence. Stark was easily captured as his friend Happy Hogan was wearing the Iron Man armor so that Stark and Iron Man could be present at the same time.[22] Stark managed to trick the Red Ghost into bringing him back to his factory where he put some final touches on the Cosmitronic Cannon and used it on the Red Ghost, restoring him to normal. However Stark also managed to load a smoke bomb and used its cover to change into Iron Man. After watching his Super-Apes be defeated by Iron Man, the Red Ghost attempted to use his phasing powers only to learn that Stark had adapted the device to make the cure a one-way ticket. Upon using his powers again the Red Ghost's body disbursed and he was seemingly slain.[23]

More Failed Schemes

The Red Ghost was far from dead, instead he was trapped in an incorporeal mist for many months until a period in which Reed Richards had lost his stretching abilities, necessitating him to travel into space and recreate the Cosmic Ray exposure that gave him his powers. The Red Ghost's mist form infiltrated the ship and when it was bombarded by Cosmic Rays, the Red Ghost was restored to normal. He attempted to sabotage the ship that Richards was piloting, hoping to kill him in re-entry. But Reed's enhanced stretching abilities made him too powerful to fight and the Red Ghost fled the ship and Reed ultimately survived the crash[24]. Ivan was next contacted by the Leader, who was gathering a group of intellectually driven super-villains to form his group the Intelligentsia. Red Ghost joined ranks with the Mad Thinker, Egghead, the Wizard, and Dr. Doom. Learning that the Eternals had rescued the part of the Library of Alexandria before the fall of Rome. Using Temporal Shifters they infiltrated this repository of knowledge located in the Eternal home of Olympia and left carbon-copies behind. Taking what they wanted they stored it in Dr. Doom's castle library in Latveria. They learned of two more repositories of Alexandrian knowledge: in Atlantis and the African nation of Wakanda. However the members of the Intelligentsia too time to focus on their personal endeavors for at time. But each made a pact to assist each other in cheating death or evading capture if their personal plans failed. [3]

The Red Ghost powers mutated further, not only allowing him to become intangible, but also invisible as well. He and his Super-Apes next targeted a rare mathematical treatise from Empire States University in New York. Their arrival in the school library was witnessed by student Roger Hochberg. When the Super-Apes tried to subdue Hochberg, they caused a fire forcing the Red Ghost and his minions to flee. Not wishing the authorities to know that he was back in the city, the Red Ghost sought to eliminate Roger. This led to a clash with Spider-Man, who managed to save Roger's life but the Red Ghost succeeded in escaping[25]. The Red Ghost later returned to Russia where he developed a device that could cause earthquakes in the hopes of toppling various Russian cities. He was caught by the Soviet Super-Soldiers who wrecked his machinery, but were soon teleported away by the Grandmaster and Death to participate in the Contest of Champions[26].

The Red Skull later reunited with the Intelligencia to meet their newest member MODOK. They soon went on a mission to collect the second cache of Alexandrian tomes from Wakanda. This gave them the means to construct a device in Latveria that could attract meteorites contain Vibranium to Earth for their own use[3]. The Red Ghost then returned to the United States where he set up a secret lab in a New York condominium. Not wishing to be captured, he sought out the elderly thief the Black Fox, forcing him to commit robberies in order to fund the Red Ghost's Cosmicizer, yet another device he hoped would boost his powers. When the Black Fox tried to rob a bank with the Super-Apes, the simians set off the alarms attracting the police and Spider-Man. When the apes attempted to flee, Spider-Man followed them back to their master's lair where he destroyed the Cosmicizer. With his device destroyed, the Red Ghost used his phasing powers to evade capture[27].

Red Ghost and the Intelligencia began examining the Beyonder when he came to Earth, and later came across the remains of the symbiote costume formally worn by Spider-Man and stimulated it so it could find a new host and survive.[28]

The Red Ghost soon returned to the moon in the hopes of infiltrating the Watcher's citadel and stealing devices from there. However his plan was interrupted when the Living Laser fled to the Watcher's citadel trying to flee the hero known as Quasar. While the Living Laser was lost in a portal, the Watcher banished both Quasar and the Red Ghost outside of his citadel. Furious at the heroes interference, Red Ghost tried to attack Quasar and steal his Quantum Bands. However this proved to be a failure and the Red Ghost was captured and turned over to the authorities on Earth[29]. The Red Ghost later intercepted a transmission from the alien Zn'rx race and learned about the artificial intelligence systems found on their ship. Learning that such a ship, dubbed the Smartship Firday, was on Earth. He made it crash into the home belonging to the youthful heroes known as the Power Pack and their family[30]. When the Power family was rushed to the Fantastic Four's new headquarters the Four Freedoms Plaza, the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes invaded to try and steal Friday's memory core. While he managed to fight off the Power Pack, the Red Ghost was later confronted by their ally the Infant Terrible who disguised himself as a super-powered version of James Power -- father to the Power Pack[31]. Red Ghost easily defeated the Infant Terrible and tried to escape with Friday's memory core. He was opposed to the Power Pack, who defeated him easily thanks to their teammate Tattletale taking possession of Red Ghost's body. [30]

Health Problems

The Red Ghost next resurfaced in Belgium where he and his Super-Apes were captured by Belgian defense agent Commander Courage as part of his complex plan to use Technorganic technologies to create an army of Were-Borgs. By this time, the Red Ghost had developed a mental link to his Super-Apes which was connected to his own personal health. Commander Courage kidnapped the Super-Apes to augment them with Were-Borg technology developed by Dr. Werner Herzog and further advanced by Dr. Jennifer Nyles. With the apes taken from him, the Red Ghost's health began to deteriorate[33]. When the mutant hero known as the Beast came to Belgium to participate in a scientific symposium and to reconnect with Jennifer Nyles, Courage hire the assassin known as the Constrictor to eliminate the Beast and prevent his interference. In order to cover his tracks, Courage led the Constrictor to believe that he had been hired by the Red Ghost[34]. In order to further cover up his involvement, Courage ensured that the Red Ghost attended the symposium as well[35]. Later, the Constrictor attacked the Beast as he was checking into his hotel, and during the fight the Beast ran into the Red Ghost, who was so ill he momentarily confused the Beast with one of his apes, leading the Beast to conclude that Ivan was in no condition to hire anyone. His Super-Apes, under Courage's control, kidnapped Dr. Nyles before the Beast's eyes[34]. Seeking to figure out the growing mystery, the Beast broke into the Belgium Defense Ministry to look for clues and found the Red Ghost tied up in a room. Trying to question the Red Ghost he found that his supposed foe was in no mental state to hire anybody. The Beast was soon after caught by Commander Courage and an army of Were-Borgs and was escorted off the property[35]. With his health rapidly failing, the Red Ghost was placed on life support[32]. Eventually the Beast and the Constrictor went back to the ministry to get to the bottom of things, clashing with Courage and his Were-Borgs[36]. While the Beast went to rescue Dr. Nyles and learn what he could about the Were-Borgs, the Constrictor was sent to rescue the Red Ghost, freeing him from his captors but soon he too was attacked by the Were-Borgs[37]. During the course of the battle, the Super-Apes were freed from Commander Courage's control. This revitalized the Red Ghost who then used his phasing powers to slay Courage, and the Red Ghost seemingly got away in the ensuing aftermath. [33]

When the Wizard escaped from prison and announced his intentions to form a new Frightful Four, the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes answered the call along with Klaw and the She-Thing. While the Red Ghost agreed to join the group, he had aspirations of usurping control of the Frightful Four from the Wizard. When the group went after the Fantastic Four, who were still reeling after the apparent death of their leader Reed Richards.[39] Using a teleportation device, the Red Ghost kidnapped the Thing to the Wizard's home where he battled him along with the Super-Apes. The Thing gained the upper hand against the Red Ghost, just like his teammates did against their own foes. When the Wizard faced defeat the Red Ghost and the others fled the battle, leaving the Wizard to deal with the Fantastic Four alone. [38]

Through unexplained circumstances the Super-Apes began to develop human level intelligence while the Red Ghost himself began to grow less and less intelligent. Many months later the Super-Apes became champions against animal testing and targeted the animal pathology department at Empire State University. Hiding among the lab animals by day, while at night creating a toxic nerve gas to unleash upon New York City. Ultimately this plot was foiled when the Fantastic Four caught wind of it and stopped the Super-Apes and foiled their plan. During this conflict, the Red Ghost seemed more interested in a rabbit used for lab testing than helping his Super-Apes fight off the Fantastic Four. [40]

Return to the Norm

The activities of the Red Ghost following his last encounter with the Fantastic Four were mostly unrecorded during his period. However, he and his Super-Apes returned to the normal status-quo. The Red Ghost began frequenting the Russian Tea Room where many super-villains of Russian origin frequented[42]. Apprehended the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes were then incarcerated in the Cage, a prison for super-humans. There his Super-Apes protected him from the aggressive prison population[43][44]. Escaping prison, the Red Ghost spent some time at the Bar With No Name in New York City[45]. Later, he was contacted by the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker to join a coalition of Fantastic Four foes as part of a plan to destroy their mutual enemies. However after hearing the Puppet Master's impassioned speech, the Red Ghost and the others left. This was all part of the plan as the Mad Thinker and Puppet Master had placed devices on the chairs that collected their DNA samples so that the Puppet Master could later control them[46]. This in turn was part of a larger plot by the Mad Thinker into tricking the Fantastic Four into giving him a means to escape into the Negative Zone[47]. As part of this plan, Mr. Fantastic had some of his calculations tampered with to make him think that if the Fantastic Four did not apprehend their numerous foes the entire team would be dead in two years time. Then the Mad Thinker orchestrated events so that the DNA samples ended up in their hands[46] and that Reed was compelled to construct a prison to detain his foes in the Negative Zone. [48]

The Red Ghost was one of the last of the FF's foes to be captured and he was not unprepared when they came after him. Despite having his strength augmented by technological gauntlets, the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes were quickly subdued by the Fantastic Four and imprisoned in the completed facility that Reed had built in the Negative Zone. Shortly after the Red Ghost's capture, the Mad Thinker and his accomplice -- a Negative Zone creature posing as the wife of security consultant Andrew Lewis -- infiltrated the facility and initiated a breakout to cover their escape into the Negative Zone[41]. When the Fantastic Four were alerted of the breakout they arrived with their allies the She-Hulk and Hercules. Finding himself greatly outclassed, the Red Ghost gave up and returned to his cell without incident. Soon the jailbreak was foiled, but the Fantastic Four were unable to stop the Mad Thinker from escaping[47]. Escaping captivity and returning to Earth, the Red Ghost began to embrace his communist ideals once again. He travelled to the African nation of Niganda with his apes Peotor and Mikhlo whose intellects had been boosted. There the Ghost assisted scientist Erich Paine in his simian mutation experiments. However, the two came to differences due to the fact that the Red Ghost intended to turn Niganda to a new communist nation consisting entirely of intelligent apes. Their activities also attracted the attention of both the mutant X-Men and the Black Panther. When the Red Ghost began dictating his socialist agenda to Paine, he forced a number of captive X-Men to go after the Red Ghost by threatening to kill their teammate Polaris[49]. When the X-Men finally caught the Red Ghost, he agreed to help them put a stop to Paine. During the course of the battle, the X-Men freed Lorna and the Red Ghost killed Paine by using his intangibility powers to remove the scientist heart. Trying to locate his Super-Apes, the Red Ghost caught them attempting to unleash a virus that would fell the human race. After the X-Men and Black Panther stopped the pathogen from being released, the Red Ghost and his apes were put on ice by Iceman and apprehended. [50]

Ape-Verse

The Red Ghost escaped incarceration once again and with his Super-Apes (now back to their normal intelligence) attempted to rob a bank in New York City. The would-be hero known as the Gibbon tried to stop the Red Ghost, but he was upstaged when the Avengers arrived and did the job for him[51]. Evading capture, the Red Ghost was drawn to Los Angeles upon hearing reports of a super-powered simian on the loose there. Going to investigate he clashed with Speedball an super-powered ape from Earth-8101 who was stranded on Earth-616. The Red Ghost and his Super-Apes clashed with Speedball until he was assisted by Ape-X the primate they were both seeking[52]. During the battle the Red Ghost attempted to use his phasing powers on Speedball just as heroes from his native universe activated a dimensional gateway. This briefly caused the Red Ghost and Speedball to exist simultaneously on Earth-616 and Earth-8101. Seeing a world that where apes were the dominant species, the Red Ghost became determined to go there and conquer it, figuring that after all the years of commanding his Super-Apes, conquering that would would be simplicity itself[52][53]. Realizing that the his phasing powers used in conjunction with Speedball could transport this world, the Red Ghost threatened to have his Super-Apes harm Ape-X, who reverted back to his human form of Roy Reyna. With no other choice, Speedball agreed to take Red Ghost to Earth-8101. [52][54]

Their arrival was detected by a dimensional transported device created by Reed Richards of Earth-2149 a universe where a zombie virus had infected the super-hero population. When the Zombies transported themselves to Earth-8101 the Red Ghost appeared to have fled the scene[52][53][54][55]. Ultimately the super-apes of Earth-8101 repelled the invaders[56]. When the super-apes of Earth-8101 went on the counter attack, the Red Ghost resurfaced and led them into battle. When all seemed a lost cause, Ape-X from Earth-616 and his allies and travelled back in time to prevent the incident that caused the zombies from Earth-2149 to discover Earth-8101. With history thus reversed, apparently the Red Ghost of Earth-616 never ventured into Earth-8101[57]

Fall of the Hulks

The Red Ghost then returned to the Intelligencia to take over the world following the fall of the Hulk.[59] They began this plot by gathering the last of the Alexandrian information that was hidden in Atlantis. However when they delivered the last of this information to Dr. Doom he betrayed them forcing them to flee. Another part of the Intelligencia plot was to create the Red Hulk[3]. During their planning phase the Intelligencia plotted how to subdue the world and make it their obedient utopia. The Red Ghost offered his advice on how to subdue Russia, but his advice was already considered and factored into the plan by the Leader and MODOK[60]. Later the Red Hulk killed an Life Model Decoy of his alter-ego, Thaddeus Ross, forcing the Intelligencia to accelerate their plans[61]. Part of the Intelligencia's plans was to kidnap the 10 most intelligent people on Earth. To this end the Red Ghost was dispatched to Wakana to capture both the Black Panther and the Beast. His kidnapping was opposed by the X-Men and the Red Hulk. During the battle the Red Hulk killed Mikhlo before the Red Ghost's eyes. Furious the Red Ghost phased his hands into the Red Hulk's chest and crushed his heart, knocking the Hulk out allowing the Red Ghost a chance to flee[58]. Eventually the Intelligencia's plans began to fall apart. As the Red and Green Hulks fought in Washington D.C., Red Ghost assisted the Wizard, Mad Thinker, Klaw, and the Trapster in stealing a massive amount of money from the Department of Engraving and Printing of the US Treasury before escaping. [62]

The Red Ghost then fled to Russia to seek a new gorilla to replace the loss of Mikhlo. Procuring a baby gorilla named Grigori in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Red Ghost just finished giving it enhanced strength when he was attacked by the Sensational and Savage She-Hulks who easily apprehended him[63]. En route to a holding facility in Nevada, the taser used to subdue the Red Ghost wore off and he and his Super-Apes tried to fight free. When it seemed like they were not going to escape the Red Ghost preferred death over capture and plunged his phased hand into the ship's control panel causing the ship to plunge out of the sky, but it was prevented from crashing by the Hulk[64]. The Red Ghost was then imprisoned at Gamma Base[65]. The Red Ghost was liberated and reunited with his fellow Intelligencia. Originally stationed in Promyshlennyi, Russia, they developed a Zero Cannon, a device that could use the worlds magnetic poles to localized anti-gravity to eject anything out of Earth's atmosphere. The weapon was powered by Red Ghost's ape Peotor. When the Russian super heroes known as Winter Guard came to apprehend them they were launched into orbit by the Zero Cannon and Red Ghost and his compatriots fled to Geo-Base 1 located on the North Pole. While they celebrated their base was attacked by Dr. Octopus and his Sinister Six. Octavius, who was inching closer to death challenged MODOK to see who was superior by pitting his minions against theirs. Red Ghost clashed with Mysterio who easily bested the Ghost and his Super-Apes who were launched into orbit. The rest of the Intelligencia followed suit and MODOK was forced to bow to the supremacy of Dr. Octopus and fled. As his base exploded, MODOK vowed to recover his comrades and revive them. [66]

Longest Winter

MODOK apparently did so as the Red Ghost soon resurfaced and began working Lucia Von Bardas[67] a cyborg who was briefly Prime Minister of Latveria before being disposed by a group of heroes.[68] He provided her with information on three Cold War era sleepers and used the black market to purchase the sleepers and their activation codes from a former communist agent known as the Red Barbarian. They also obtained one of Dr. Doom's Doombots[1] in order to obtain nuclear launch codes from a secret Latverian nuclear stockpile in order to trigger a conflict between the United States and Latveria[69]. They sent one of these sleepers, Arkady to attack Dr. Doom at the Latverian Embassy in New York. This action set the Winter Soldier (now a SHIELD agent) and the Black Widow on their trail. In order to impede these heroes in learning the truth the Red Ghost provided a number of his combat trained Super-Apes to assist hired RAID agents. [67]

The Red Ghost, operating from an abandoned simian research centre in New York, then revived a second sleeper agent, Dmitri to assist in their mission[1], while Arkady was sent with the Doombot to UN Headquarters in New York[70]. While Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Dr. Doom were busy trying to stop an attack on the UN, Red Ghost fled with Lucia to Latveria to gain access to the missile silos[69]. The heroes managed to track them back to Latveria, where the Winter Soldier prevented the missile launches. While Lucia was captured the Red Ghost managed to escape. [71]

Recent Activities

The Red Ghost reunited with his fellow Intelligencia members aboard a ship in the north sea. There they observed the most recent clashes between heroes and decided the best course of action was to wait until the heroes eventually eliminate themselves before making future plans for world domination. The meeting was interrupted by the mercenary known as Deadpool who tried to sink their vessel and drown the entire group. This plan failed and Deadpool was left for dead by the Trapster, although he managed to survive[72]. Later the Intelligencia obtained what they thought was alien technology and attempted to reverse engineer it for their own uses. They were unaware that they were inadvertently unleashing the Earth made killer robot known as Ultron. However, thanks to interference Wolverine and the Invisible Woman of Earth-61112, the Avengers were tipped off and Ultron was destroyed before he could conquer the world creating the reality in which the heroes from Earth-61112 came from[73].

The Red Ghost of many eras fighting the wards of the Future Foundation[74]

Most recently the Red Ghost returned to the moon to try once more to pilfer technology from the Watcher's citadel. As with most of his previous attempts to do so he crossed into the same chronal spike. His trip to the moon also coincided with the Future Foundation and their young wards seeking refuge there from Dr. Doom and his cohorts. As he crossed through the mists he lost track of his Super-Apes and went looking for them. He ended up crossing paths with two of his past selves as well as one from a possible future. They found their collective of Super-Apes being fed bananas by the young wards of the Future Foundation -- which included Bently-23, Adolf Impossible, Leech, Artie Maddicks, Onome, Vil, Wu, Mik, Korr, Turg and Tong -- who beat the collective Red Ghosts senseless until the presumably retreated[75]

Death

Wishing to go down in history, Kragoff began working on something called "Project Onicef", in order to change the world for the better. Whil installing himself in a new lab, Red Ghost was targeted by Captain America (Steve Rogers), who was brainwashed into becoming an agent of Hydra, as he needed a hiding place for Dr. Erik Selvig to protect him from the Red Skull. A fight ensued, resulting in Rogers killing Ghost's Super-Apes and using a device to stop him while he was phasing through a wall, costing Kragoff an arm and a leg. Rogers used Ivan's remaining arm to gain access to Project Onicef, before killing Ghost himself with his shield.[76]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Current Abilities

Intangibility: The Red Ghost possesses the ability to become intangible at will. As a result of exposure to unusually active, high frequency cosmic radiation which saturated his body, the Red Ghost's atoms have been restructured to substitute psions (subatomic energy particles whose frequencies are in the psionic region of the electromagnetic spectrum) for gluons (subatomic particles which carry the forces that bind the nucleus of an atom together). The Red Ghost possesses a psionic field which enables him to maintain control over a large cloud of loosely arranged atoms which revolve around a locus of points that was his human form.

Through concentration, the Red Ghost can achieve different degrees of intangibility and can even become like a diffuse mist. He can become transparent or invisible when in intangible form, to the extent that sensitive equipment of Reed Richards was unable to detect him hiding over several days. The Red Ghost can alter the tangibility of parts of his body independently of each other. Thus he can hold a weapon in his hand while the rest of his body is intangible. While he is intangible, his body metabolism enables him to go without eating or without breathing for extended periods of time.

The Red Ghost can somehow cause his clothing to become intangible as he does. He can also psionically cause nearly inanimate objects to become intangible.

Former Powers

Mist Form: After being exposed by more cosmic rays the Red Ghost could turn part of all of his body into a red mist[16]. These powers were intermittent and he lost this ability after being bombarded by a heavy dose of cosmic rays in space. [24]

Invisibility: The Red Ghost, through unknown means, developed the ability to become invisible. This ability proved to be short lived as he was only seen employing this ability once. [25]

Abilities

Super-Genius Intelligence: Ivan Kragoff is considered to be one of the smartest people on the planet. He is a brilliant scientist skilled in the fields of rocketry, engineering and physics. He is also skilled in training simians.[3]

↑Red Ghost passed through that barrier in Fantastic Four #29, his loss of powers did not kick in until Iron Man #15. In this same issue he states that his Super-Apes were destroyed. This proves to be a false statement as the Red Ghost begins to use them again

↑FF Vol 2 #13. One of the Red Ghost's came from the era after his team-up with the Mole Man in Avengers #12, and the other after his failed team-up with the barbarian Attuma in Defenders #7. The future Red Ghost is from an as yet unidentified possible future